


What We Know About the Inu no Taishō

by TekkaWekka, VorpalGirl



Category: InuYasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale
Genre: Analysis, Archived From Tumblr, Archived Works From Inu-Fiction Blog, Canon Backstory, Canon Compliant, Character Analysis, Dogs, Embedded Images, Essay, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, Inuvember, Japanese Culture, Meta, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Polyamory, Text Descriptions Included For Embedded Images, Worldbuilding, Youkai, information
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-02 02:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16777504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TekkaWekka/pseuds/TekkaWekka, https://archiveofourown.org/users/VorpalGirl/pseuds/VorpalGirl
Summary: Sesshōmaru and Inuyasha’s father is a mysterious fellow. He never appears alive in-series. His humanoid form never appears in the original manga at all, not even in a flashback. But that doesn't mean we don't have some intriguing clues to build his character from - some of which may surprise you!This work is a nonfiction article delineating what we can glean from canon information vs purely fanon myths regarding Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru's father, illustrated and clarified with sample images from the manga. Originally posted in 2014 on the tumblr blog "Inu-Fiction" ; cross-posted for archival purposes, now with added Image Descriptions.





	What We Know About the Inu no Taishō

**Author's Note:**

> HISTORY: This article was originally written in 2014 for our "Inu-Fiction" fanblog on tumblr (a blog dedicated to fanfic of and meta regarding the Inuyasha franchise and its accompanying fandom). It is being posted here for accessibility and archival purposes. Its original URL was: http://inu-fiction.tumblr.com/post/83661375114/what-we-know-about-the-inu-no-taish%C5%8D 
> 
> CREDITS: The work of archiving this article, including the transition/reformatting to AO3 and addition of (copious) annotations and Image Descriptions for the embedded illustrations from the manga, has been done by VorpalGirl. The original article text, however, was entirely written by TekkaWekka, while the embedded images used are (occasionally modified) low-resolution scans of pages from the original _Inuyasha_ manga by Rumiko Takahashi, translated by multiple different (often fan) translators; the images are used here purely as illustrations for educational purposes, to provide clarity and visual citations while discussing the depictions/characterization of this character and those he influenced, in the context of Takahashi's original work.
> 
> ARCHIVING NOTES: The original text, including its original formatting, images and external links to informational sources, has been preserved here as much as possible - however, some revisions and additions have been made for the sake of accuracy, accessibility, and/or stability. These include some annotations, some minor corrections, and text-format descriptions/summaries for all of the embedded images, whose URLs on the AO3 version of this article now point to copies of the images saved on the Internet Archive's "Wayback Machine" instead of copies saved on tumblr's servers. (Speaking of - if you wish to view the article in its 100% original context and formatting, all you need do is put the URL into the Wayback Machine, as VorpalGirl was a sneaky ninja who managed to get it backed up there _before_ tumblr started blocking Internet Archive's IP addresses! That said, please keep in mind that the Internet Archive version lacks the corrections, annotations and image descriptions found in this version)
> 
> In the case of images with dialogue, VorpalGirl has endeavored to give credit for the translation work on each in the added descriptions; however, in many cases, we are not sure which translator and/or "fanslation" group was responsible for the copy of the image we used of a particular page - many if not most of the images with dialogue used here _appear_ to have been translated by fans, but do not appear to have been translated by the same ones in every case. If you can help us identify a given translator's work, please let us know in the comments, and we'll amend the posting!
> 
> Finally, **regarding the spellings of certain Japanese words**...
> 
> It is first worth noting that Japanese is able to be "romanized" (written in European-style lettering) in multiple ways, and because of this, different publications can have different approaches to it. The Style Guide of Inu-Fiction at the time of the original article included the use of accented letters to mark long vowels from Japanese; this romanization rule has been retained in this archived version - even in the newly-added Image Descriptions (the only exception? Those portions _directly quoting_ text within the image which used different spelling). Hence, in the article itself, you will see for example the spellings "Taishō" instead of "Taisho" or "Taishou", and "Ryūkotsusei" instead of "Ryuukotsusei". 
> 
> The Style Guide _also_ used the "more correct" transliterations of certain names, rather than the common mis-transliterations (yes, including those used by Viz); hence, you will see "Tessaiga" rather than "Testusaiga" (the latter being the official Viz Media English "translation" due to a transliteration error from furigana reading difficulties) and "Ryūkotsusei" instead of "Ryūkossei" (the latter being a common *fan* mis-transliteration, also due to the manga's infuriating furigana). If you're confused about the latter two, the following Internet Archive preserved pages of another Inuyasha blog, Inu-Fanon (run by Patches/fast-moon), should clear it up:  
> <http://web.archive.org/web/20151029105924/http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/64738304205/tetsusaiga-vs-tessaiga>  
> <http://web.archive.org/web/20181211054151/http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/64902215304/ryuukotsusei-vs-ryuukossei>

Sesshōmaru and Inuyasha's father is a mysterious fellow. He never appears alive in-series. His humanoid form never appears at all, not even in a flashback. Rumiko Takahashi never even gives him a canon name––we're stuck calling him the Inu no Taishō, his title. We, the fans, are left to build his character from what few clues Takahashi grants us.

What clues does the Princess of Manga give us? Despite the lack of a canon name or humanoid form, she leaves the imaginative fic writer with quite a few intriguing details. By the end of this post, you'll hopefully have a better grasp on what's canon and what's fan-created (a.k.a. fanon) in regards to the Inu no Taishō––and be inspired, as well.

**1\. He Was Freakin' Huge**

Seriously. Look at the panel below. You see that limp animal in the Inu no Taishō's mouth? That is a full-grown cow. He could carry off a cow without effort.

_[ IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page of the original_ Inuyasha _manga, translated into English and reading left-to-right - though given the terminology used, it is likely fan-translated rather than from Viz's official translations...?_  
  
_The first panel features: an image of the old priestess Kaede, a very grumpy-looking Inuyasha, and Kagome, with a cloudy, dreamlike background of sky and mountains and water reflecting the mountains, where in the midst of the clouds is a gigantic white dog depicted with a long, fluffy, curly furred tail, with what appears to be a full-grown bovine -likely a steer or ox given the shape, though it it is hard for this archivist to tell for sure given she is not a feudal Japanese farmer - in his mouth. The bovine is dark-colored so that it contrasts with the dog, making it easy to tell that it is close to and perhaps only slightly larger than his entire. head. - or, that is to say, more impressively, that the head of the giant dog is nearly as big as a full-grown bovine animal._  
  
_Kaede in the first panel is stating, "Inuyasha, I remember hearing of your father...that he was a monstrous dog that prowled the lands to the west." Inuyasha replies that he "[doesn't] really remember."_  
  
_The other panels consist of Myōga the Flea describing Inuyasha's father as "a strong and imposing youkai [sic] lord...", and Kagome asking about Inuyasha's mother, which upsets Inuyasha and prompts Myōga to state that "his haha-ue-sama was awfully beautiful...". The footnote under the final panel adds a translation note that "haha-ue-sama = an old and very polite term for 'mother'."_ ]

  
  


Nor was that the upper limit of his size. Take a look at his corpse: 

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, again likely fan-translated due to the terminology used(?) It depicts Inuyasha and Kagome riding a giant skeletal bird thing into the yōkai graveyard, during the arc where they travel to his father's corpse. The bird thing they are riding has a head and neck approximately the size of a horse's, and the thing's size from tail-tip to beak-tip is longer than Inuyasha is tall, and the thing can support both he and Kagome at the same time on its back._  
  
_As they come into view of a GIANT and seemingly semi-humanoid skeleton, wearing a traditional Japanese breastplate armor piece, Inuyasha says "oyaji" - a term which the archivist notes is an informal way of saying "father", often translated as something like "pops", which Inuyasha commonly uses to refer to his father._  
  
_The semi-humanoid skeleton in question has extremely large, pointy teeth, including at least one ENORMOUS intact upper canine tooth and one impressively large broken one on the other side. Skeletal birds like the one they landed on and are riding are hovering near-ish to the head in a flock and if the archivist had to guess, they're "small" enough to fit through one of the eye sockets without much trouble!]_

Those are trees growing in his armor, and yes, his fangs are larger than said trees. The Inu no Taishō was not only a _daiyōkai_ (great yōkai), but also a _daiyōkai_ (large yōkai).

**2\. His Corpse Has Humanoid Bones Inside**

I've phrased the title of this entry carefully, since I'm unsure of two things: whether any of bones inside the Inu no Taishō's coprse were human, and how they got there in the first place. But the panel below is worth considering:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a panel from the_ Inuyasha _manga, featuring Sesshōmaru standing inside of the Inu no Taishō's chest cavity, staring at the sword Tessaiga where it stands embedded in a platform. (Sidebar: it's worth noting, with regard to the previous point in this article, that each of the giant ribs of the ribcage visible behind him are obviously several feet in diameter, perhaps more than a meter if we use metric, seeing as while Sesshōmaru doesn't have a specific canonical height in the manga, he probably is at least close to 6 ft or 2 meters tall, and each of those ribs appears to be over half his height in width!).  
  
The "floor" of the cavity is littered with piles of stuff, mostly bones, including skull in the foreground which looks vaguely humanoid but has tiny goat-like horns, like an Oni might. TekkaWekka has added two red circles to the image, surrounding, left to right, a particular item and a particular skull of note.]_

Yes, the skull all the way to the right, in the foreground, obviously belongs to a _yōkai_. However, a good look at the rest of the skulls reveals one uncomfortably human-looking skull, and all the way to the left is a [vajra](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three-pronged_Vajra,_12th_century_Japan,_gilt_bronze,_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art,_1987.151.JPG), a Buddhist prayer tool. I'm talking about the object with three prongs on each end, circled in red. Vajra make other appearances in the series, but never in the hands of _yōkai_. They are always tools used by Buddhist monks to purify _yōkai_. Further examination of the Inu no Taishō's corpse reveals more human-looking skulls:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: Another image from the_ Inuyasha _manga featuring Sesshōmaru inside of the Inu no Taishō's skeletal corpse. Tekka has circled in red 5 more suspiciously human-looking skulls on the "floor" of the chest cavity (Sidebar: the archivist finds it morbidly amusing that Sesshōmaru uses the respectful term "Chichi-ue" for his father in this scene, given he is, without so much as flinching, literally standing inside his father's dead body while planning to steal a sword from it that was meant for his younger half-brother. The cognitive dissonance, man. Wow.) ]_

Mind you, these chapters take place inside the Inu no Taishō's chest cavity. Where his stomach would be, if he were alive.

Now, the one image we have of a living Inu no Taishō shows him carrying off a cow, presumably to eat, not a human. Inuyasha's mother was human. Tessaiga was forged to protect her, and only Kagome, a human, could pull Tessaiga out of its altar. There's no evidence of the Inu no Taishō ever harming humans in any fashion.

But those bones got into his belly somehow.

**3\. He Had Sex With Two Women**

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A black and white image from the original_ Inuyasha _manga. It is of a beautiful woman* in an elaborate_ junihitoe _outfit with extremely long hair that has the bangs in a straight-edged fashion.]_

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A picture of Sesshōmaru's mother, a beautiful woman with white hair, pointed elf-like ears, a crescent moon mark on her forehead, two jagged stripe markings on her upper-outer cheeks, what appear to be painted lips, and a very fancy kimono. Also, fluff similar to her son's, meaning it looks Fabulous.]_

Atop, Inuyasha's mother, a.k.a. Haha-ue-sama, Ofukuro, and Izayoi. Below, Sesshōmaru's mother, a.k.a. Gobodō-sama and Lady Mother (Inu-kimi and Irasue are dirty words here)**. The Inu no Taishō had sex with both of them, at least once each, to father Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru. 

That's the sum total of the canon regarding the Inu no Taishō's love life. Anything else is speculation.

Though this does tell us the Inu no Taishō had splendid taste in women.

**4\. He Had Tōtōsai Forge Tessaiga to Protect Inuyasha's Mother**

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the Inuyasha manga ( **Archivist's note:** possibly fan-translated given the use of honorifics, which were normally cut from Viz's original translations, though, confusingly for this archivist, the dialogue read left-to-right like the first English translations and features the Viz-used spelling of "Tetsusaiga" instead of "Tessaiga"! Either way, the translation is solid enough for our purposes, as it is consistent with other translations).  
  
The first two panels feature Myōga stating "Originally, Inuyasha-sama's father created the Tetsusaiga...for the protection of Inuyasha's human mother. In other words...it's a sword that cannot be used without affection and protective feelings towards humans...". The other 2 panels on the page consist of a flashback to Inuyasha yelling "I'm saying I'll protect you!", and Kagome thinking to herself, "I get it...so that's why the sword reacted then and..."]_

Depending on how long the Inu no Taishō lived, he was without Tessaiga for most of his life. Given the size of the claw sealing Ryūkotsusei away, he likely fought in his true form, with fang and claw, until the creation of Tessaiga.

**5\. He Fought Shishinki With Tessaiga**

Sometime after the forging of Tessaiga, which also means sometime after the Inu no Taishō met Inuyasha's Mother, he fought a powerful _yōkai_ named Shishinki. The Inu no Taishō stole Meidō Zangetsuha, Shishinki's technique, and used it at least once to send half of Shishinki's face to the underworld.

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 2 pages from the_ Inuyasha _manga, both fan-translated_ _( **Archivist's note** : in this case, I believe the translation was done by Patches/fast-moon but I am not sure; I will be checking after the post goes up). The pages read right-to-left in this case. _  
  
_Panel 1 of page 1 shows an ominous black circle, panel 2 shows a shocked Sesshōmaru thinking, "A Meidou!?" Panel 3 has another character - likely Jaken, though it is hard to tell with the low resolution - stating "It isn't as big as Sesshōmaru-sama's though..." to which Kohaku replies "However, it is a complete meidou." Panel 4 has the character Shishinki stating "Hmph... in the beginning, Meidou Zangetsuha was my technique."_  
  
_Page 2 panel 1: Shishinki says "Sesshoumaru...your father stole it from me. As well as..." Panel 3: Shishinki removes his half-mask from the left side of his face and reveals that a good third or so of his face is literally just GONE, empty space where "head" should be and he finishes his previous statement with "my face."]_

Afterwards, the Inu no Taishō had Tōtōsai forge Tenseiga out of Tessaiga. Tenseiga contained both the ability to resurrect the dead and Meidō Zangetsuha. The Inu no Taishō intended for Sesshōmaru to master Meidō Zangetsuha until it was safe for Inuyasha to train further (Chapter 495, Pages 9-17). Somehow, the Inu no Taishō knew Sesshōmaru would not only give up the powerful Meidō Zangetsuha, but would also gain a powerful weapon of his own once he quit wanting his father's power.

 **Anything else, especially anything about Sesshōmaru being second-best in his father's heart, is speculation** **.** I can't stress this enough. There's no canonical evidence the Inu no Taishō loved Sesshōmaru less than Inuyasha.

**6\. He Entrusted the Meidō Stone to Sesshōmaru's Mother**

After the forging of Tenseiga, the Inu no Taishō gave Sesshōmaru's mother (from hereon called the Lady Mother) the Meidō Stone, a powerful artifact capable of summoning hellhounds, opening paths to the Underworld, and restoring the dead to life. He told the Lady Mother to use it if Sesshōmaru came seeking information about Meidō Zangetsuha.

  


_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a pair of pages from the_ Inuyasha _manga, read right-to-left; likely a fan-translation?_  
  
_PAGE 1 Summary:_ _An irked looking Sesshōmaru: "Tenseiga's method of opening the Meidou...surely you heard about it from father."_ _His mother, with an expression that might be called faux humility: "Maybe...I was merely entrusted with the Meidou-seki, after all..." (Footnotes for this panel read: "Meidou = 'path to the abyss' ", and, "Meidou-seki= 'meidou stone' ", respectively)_

_Sesshōmaru: "Meidou-seki...?"_ _Sesshōmaru's mother, looking at the stone: "I was told to use it if Sesshoumaru were to stop by." She adds, "Oh yes, and he told me this as well..."_  
  
_PAGE 2 Summary:_ _Sesshōmaru's mother, calmly, with a small smile: "If you use the meidou-seki, Sesshōmaru will be face with great danger. However, you must not feel fear or sadness."_ _(Jaken notes that she says this with a smile; Rin comments "she doesn't seem very worried", and Jaken thinks to himself "Somehow, mother and son seem a lot alike.")_  
  
_Sesshōmaru's mother: "What will you do, Sesshōmaru? Don't keep your mother waiting."_ _Sesshōmaru, peevishly: "Hmph. The thought never crossed my mind."_ _Sesshōmaru's mother, with an intimidating smirk: "In that case...shall we have a bit of fun?" ]_

Ouch. Kind of harsh, huh? Then again, he told the Lady Mother not to worry about Sesshōmaru, who is no slouch in the defending himself department. Indeed, Sesshōmaru winds up in no danger whatsoever. It's **Rin** who pays the price. What does the Lady Mother have to say when Sesshōmaru calls her out for Rin's death? 

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 4 pages from the_ Inuyasha _manga. A Summary:_  
  
_Sesshōmaru's mother asks a disgruntled-looking Sesshōmaru: "What's wrong, Sesshoumaru? You look upset. Just as you wished, Tenseiga matured and the Meidou widened. How about being just a little happy?" To which he angrily responds: "You knew...that this would happen to Rin."  
  
__She then asks: "You have already saved the girl once with the Tenseiga...correct?" And then adds, to his shock: "Tenseiga is only able to call a dead person back once."  
  
She goes on to further add, with an almost disturbing level of calm: ""It's only natural. After all, life is finite. It is not some thing that you can save as many times as you like at your convenience. Did you think you were like a god or something? That as long as you had Tenseiga, there was no fear of death. Sesshoumaru, it is something you had to learn. That when your heart wishes to save someone dear to you...it must at the same time feel sadness and fear of losing them. Your father said this as well. Tenseiga is a healing sword. Even when wielded as a weapon, you must understand the weight of life and carry a compassionate heart when dispatching your enemy. That is what is necessary...for one who wields the Tenseiga which can save a hundred lives and send enemies to the Meidou..."_  
  
_Jaken, tearfully, responds: "So in order for Sesshoumaru-sama to have a compassionate heart...Rin had to die?"_ _Sesshōmaru's mother: "Little youkai, are you crying?"_ _"I am Jaken," he replies tearfully. "And because Sesshoumaru-sama's disposition prevents him from ever showing tears, I, Jaken, shall in his place..."]_  
  
_Sesshōmaru's mother: "Ah." ]_

Here we see what else the Lady Mother was entrusted with: imparting the Inu no Taishō's respect for all life to Sesshōmaru. Despite being entrusted with the Meidō Stone after the Inu no Taishō met Inuyasha's mother, the Lady Mother still carried out his wishes regarding Sesshōmaru.

What this means about the Inu no Taishō's relationship with the mothers of his children is up to the individual fic writer to interpret.

**7\. He Died after Sealing Away Ryūkotsusei**

Myōga makes it clear to Inuyasha:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, in what appears to be a fan-translation. Summary: Inuyasha is battling with the dragon Ryūkotsusei. While Inuyasha decalres "I'm just getting started!" Myōga states that "it really is impossible. I'm sure I said that even your Chichi-gimi only just sealed it...but that's not all! The wounds [sic] your Chichi-gimi got from Ryuukossei [sic] is the root-cause of him passing away!"  
  
Archivist's sidebar: "Chichi-gimi" is a highly respectful way of referring to someone's father; Myōga, as Inuyasha's father's vassal and a perpetual coward, always refers to him in the highest kinds of politeness, which is retained in this translation by simply reusing the Japanese terms. "Ryuukossei" meanwhile, as noted in our Introductory notes, is a common mis-transliteration of Ryūkotsusei's name.]_

For all his power, the Inu no Taishō couldn't kill Ryūkotsusei, and died in the attempt. By successfully using the Bakuryūha against Ryūkotsusei, Inuyasha killed the _yōkai_ his father couldn't.

Meeting Inuyasha's mother, forging Tessaiga, fighting Shishinki, stealing the Meidō Zangetsuha, forging Tenseiga, gaining and giving away the Meidō Stone, sealing Ryūkotsusei, hiding Tessaiga...the last few years of the Inu no Taishō's life were busy. Despite all the excitement in his life, his sons wound up facing even more dangerous enemies. This leads us to our next canon fact:

**8\. Both of His Sons Surpassed Him**

The Inu no Taishō was an awesome _daiyōkai_ , no doubt. His sons? Even more awesome. Canonically, Inuyasha and Sesshōmaru surpass him.

Inuyasha all the way back in Chapter 192, when he killed Ryūkotsusei:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, in fan-translation. Inuyasha says, "In other words, if I rip apart the youkai that Oyaji fought, in theory I can surpass oyaji huh. Myōga replies,"There's no need to 'rip apart'. Listen, Inuyasha-sama, while Ryuukossei [sic] is sealed, just piercing it's [sic] heart will do." When Inuyasha asks in return, "I won't fight it then?" Myōga replies, "Don't be ridiculous! even when your Chichi-gimi finally sealed the youkai...he couldn't finish it off."  
  
Inuyasha, perhaps understandably and very predictably, responds that "But, that's just like killing someone in their sleep..." To which Myōga states "Stop complaining or I won't show you the way!" and Inuyasha bickers back, "Hey, who are you talking to eh, me!?"]  
_

The above page is from Chapter 188, to prove killing Ryūkotsusei counted as surpassing the Inu no Taishō.

Sesshōmaru, when he consciously decided to rely on his own power:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, the last page in a chapter, in which an infuriated Sesshōmaru charges at Magatsuhi, thinking to himself : "I wil [sic] kill him with my own hands! This is a matter of my pride!"  
  
The bottom of the page, giving a teaser for the next week's chapter, reads: "Though he lost Meidou Zengetsuha, he hasn't lost his pride! Sesshoumaru challenges the evil spirit Magatsuhi unarmed...!!"]_

And thus, manifested Bakusaiga:

_[IMAGE SUMMARY: a page or portion of a page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, featuring Sesshōmaru's WHOLE ARM!! Bursting!! out of what used to be an amputated stump (from where Inuyasha chopped it off many chapters prior)!! For some reason...holding a sword!!? Which, understandably, the other characters react in shock to. ]_

Tōtōsai outright states Sesshōmaru's has surpassed his father:

_[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: a page from the_ Inuyasha _manga, last page of a chapter, showing character reactions by Sesshōmaru and Inuyasha as Tōtōsai states , from off-panel, "This is proof that you have surpassed your father...and have been liberated from Tessaiga."  
  
The teaser for the next chapter includes mention that, "At the end of a long battle, Sesshōmaru finally obtains his own weapon." - a reference to his new sword, Bakusaiga.]_

Now, our final canon fact:

**9\. The Inu no Taishō Was NOT the Lord of the Western Lands**

  
I'll repeat it: The Inu no Taishō was not the Lord of the Western Lands. Sesshōmaru is not the Lord of the Western Lands. There is no such thing as the position "Lord of the Western Lands."

[inu-fanon](http://tmblr.co/molo-74E98dTRotUtAH6dmQ) has a beautifully witty and succinct post debunking this incredibly persistent piece of fanon [here](http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/65242321756/lord-of-the-western-lands)***. I know the idea of "Lord of the Western Lands" is incredibly popular, and fic writers can do what they want. But please, please, please don't claim it's canon. Please. Every time you do, Inuyasha beats up Shippō.

In the end, what do all these facts mean? They're not puzzle pieces; there's no wrong or right way to put them together. They're not even necessary for good InuYasha fanfiction, since half the fun of fanfiction is doing what you please with the source material. However, the other half is putting your creativity to work within the guidelines of canon and seeing what comes out. It's up to you, the writer, to choose which half is more important to your fic.

Write what you want, do your best. That's all.

––tekka-wekka

**Author's Note:**

> **Archivist's Footnotes:**
> 
> *I actually think given the snippet of cut-off dialogue this is technically the Mu-Onna, or Nothing-Woman aka the "Un-Mother" as Viz translated it, and not literally Inuyasha's mother...however, she is in this scene so identical to Inuyasha's dead mother that it completely fooled Inuyasha himself, so we can assume that it's just as accurate a depiction! 
> 
> **For those not in on the joke Tekka cracks there, both "Inu-kimi" and "Irasue" were common but completely nonsensical and made up fanon names for Sesshōmaru's mother among English -speaking fans, especially on places like tumblr a few years back, when this was originally published on the blog. Sesshōmaru's mother has no canonical name, though her being referred to under the rare but respectful Term For Another Person's Mother, Gobodō-sama, by Jaken, apparently resulted in Japanese fandom typically using that for her, and "[the] Lady Mother" is a fairly common English substitution for fans to use when they don't know or prefer not to use the Japanese version; you can see discussion of this in [this post](http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/66050806733/sesshoumarus-mothers-name) from Fast Moon's "Inu-Fanon" blog...Inu-FANON, note; it was not the same as us but was a great source that we used heavily! (Note: I don't trust tumblr as far as I could throw their servers in terms of stability, so [here is a backup of that post from the Wayback Machine](http://web.archive.org/web/20181211063217/http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/66050806733/sesshoumarus-mothers-name) in case that original tumblr link ever goes down). 
> 
> While I'm at it: Inuyasha's mother ALSO technically has no "canonical" name if we consider the manga the Primary Canon - as many fans do. However, one of the animated films (which was not based on any of the manga, and has a fair number of inconsistencies/continuity issues, but is technically still part of the larger anime canon), did indeed use the name "Izayoi" for Inuyasha's mother, allowing us to at least have a given name for the poor woman (though we still don't know what her Clan name would have been). 
> 
> "Haha-ue-sama" meanwhile is a highly respectful way to refer to a mother in general ("haha" on its own is a form of "mother"; the other two portions add politeness/formality levels to the term, which is often used as an epithet or form of address since Proper Titles/Names are considered more polite than pronouns in Japanese). 
> 
> "Ofukuro"...technically means "one's mother", at least [according to Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%8A%E6%AF%8D%E3%81%95%E3%82%93) as well as Patches from Inu-Fanon (who confirmed both the use and the spelling for me), though it is much more, uh... _informal_. No, seriously, probably don't call your mom that unless she has a sense of humor, because fun fact: "ofukuro" is one of those rare cases where it translates directly _enough_ , that you could probably make a pun with it and maintain the joke in English...and it's basically "old bag"! (No, I'm not kidding. ["Fukuro" on its own LITERALLY means "bag/sack/pouch"](https://jisho.org/word/%E8%A2%8B).) 
> 
> (Additional fun characterization note: Patches confirms that his use of "ofukuro" is one of many elements of Inuyasha's way of speaking that adds up to him talking like the Japanese version of, and I quote, "a [chav](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav)". Which is something Patches has noted before but is still just always amusing to think about... ) 
> 
> ***If tumblr ever kills the page Tekka is referring to, it's also archived at the Wayback Machine at <http://web.archive.org/web/20181214111151/http://inu-fanon.tumblr.com/post/65242321756/lord-of-the-western-lands>. I made darn sure of that, because it is _utterly fantastic_ , thanks. Do yourself a favor sometime and read it, it's equal parts informative and _hilarious_


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